Baby Review: A Sharp Portrait of LGBTQ+ Brazilian Hustlers Lost in the System
Channelling the metropolitan unease and pulsating life of São Paulo, filmmaker Caetano's gripping drama centres on those who inhabit the outskirts of an constantly evolving metropolis. Fresh out of juvenile prison, 18-year-old Wellington (João Pedro Mariano) faces a critical turning point; abandoned by his parents, the impressionable young man discovers refuge in the arms of others.
On an evening out with his rowdy group of gay and non-binary friends, Wellington meets Ronaldo (Ricardo Teodoro), a hunky, charismatic hustler over double his age. Shrouded in the pulsating light of a XXX cinema, their initial encounter is intimate and charged, with an tinge of peril. Ronaldo quickly introduces Wellington to the underground scene of the sex trade and drug dealing.
A Portrait of Empathy Instead of Sensationalism
Caetano depicts Wellington’s new life of crime with gentle sympathy as opposed to as a melodramatic morality play. Now using the alias Baby, he approaches his transactional encounters with swaggering confidence and touching naivety. To his clients, Wellington provides not just his youth and his body, but also fleeting acts of kindness.
In the feverish excitement of São Paulo, teeming with crowded backstreets and brightly painted facades, there’s a gnawing loneliness, as unmoored souls grasp at one another for fleeting joy.
"The city might be fraught with peril, yet they are the place where they can discover chosen kin, too."
A Complicated Dynamic of Love and Control
Ronaldo is at once a romantic interest and a protective father figure to Wellington, but their connection is thrown off course by possessiveness and financial instability. Intimidation from dubious individuals in the criminal underworld are overshadowed by the fear of institutional observation and incarceration, represented by the looming presence of police officers making their rounds.
Baby is most powerful as a perceptive study of the disenfranchised individuals who have fallen through the cracks the established structure. The film stands as a poignant exploration into making ends meet, non-biological kinship, and the search for purpose within a unforgiving urban landscape.
